We are so used to the everyday. The things around us that we hardly notice and take for granted. Ted Kooser is a poet who delights in the ordinary and lends us his eyes to see beyond the familiar. A JAR OF BUTTONS This is a core samplefrom the floor of the Sea of Mending, … Read more
Yes. You did read that correctly. What we notice isn’t just a matter of sifting through what falls on our retina. Watch animals, or even people, for a short while, and you start to observe this in action. Because our senses are far more integrated than we give them credit for. Yes. We are fearfully … Read more
Wandering without an agenda, even for a few minutes, lets us notice what we might otherwise miss. A SINGLE ACORN One, just one when last year, there were multitudes, so many I couldn’t walk without crushing some. One, just one, not a deficit, but more rebalancing the scales of the years. Weighing out time. One, … Read more
A little shift, darkening of the green with a tiny dab of yellow, becomes a movement across the hillside. Not overnight, lest we think everything has changed. But tilting in that direction. The one that says it’s time to bring out the layers and recalibrate our expectations. Where else are we noticing tilting but don’t … Read more
It’s easy to dismiss the muddy brown waters, the result of heavy rainfall on our Welsh hills. Yet to do so merely demonstrates surface thinking. Only noticing what immediately meets our eyes. However, get attuned to the movement and the tiny disruptions on the surface, and another world emerges. What are we missing in our … Read more
Every day of the last two weeks, I’ve tried to perfect my alpaca fibre processing… And then I come across these beautiful webs. And weep. All around us are demonstrations of beauty in action. If we will only pause and notice. I have so much to learn… Pause. See differently. Re-story 🌿
Why do we think beauty is reserved for extraordinary places or special occasions? Rather than being hidden in plain sight. As Marcel Proust commented: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in finding new landscapes but in seeing with fresh eyes.” Pause. See differently. Re-story 🌿
Wandering the valley after the alpaca rounds and noticing… BENEATH THE CANOPY Trees with manicured understorey, the height of those nibbling lush leaves, tell a story of their own. Shade from the elements. Safety in shadows. Sustenance renewed for valley dwellers. Finding place in common space reciprocal in glorious diversity, here is flourishing in … Read more
At the start of his brilliant book, The Art of Noticing: Discover What Really Matters to You, Rob Walker quotes Amy Krouse Rosenthal: “For anyone trying to discern what to do with their life: pay attention to what you pay attention to. That’s pretty much all the information you need.” It’s an excellent question to … Read more
When something catches our attention, and we pause to look, we don’t always see what we expect. And that leaves us with a choice. Each of these moments is an invitation to further inquiry; looking deeper, zooming out, or in. Opening possibilities for a new way of being. + Rick Rubin, from The Creative Act: … Read more